Exotic animals at La Rambla: Iguana

If I am not in a mistake (you know that classifying animals is not my specialty) this is a green iguana. Exotic specimens like this can be bought in some of the several animal stalls at La Rambla, to be more precise at La Rambla dels Estudis, also known as La Rambla dels Ocells (Birds). The stalls give color to the walk, both those selling animals or the ones selling flowers, and are part of the history of this famous street. But there have been protests against animal vendors by animal rights activists. The City Council is trying to regulate vendors' activities and surely will end up reconverting the 14 stalls as there is a project to open interactive information stands for tourists on the same place. In the meantime they are still there as their business is totally legal thanks to a permit granted by the City Council itself. I reckon animals should live in better conditions but owners and their families should be compensated properly too.

FC Barcelona - Real Madrid Fever At Las Ramblas, Barcelona

Barça - Madrid yesterday ended up 3 - 3 thanks to a wonderful hat trick scored by Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi. Those of you who don't like soccer and prefer other sports please skip this part. As you know whenever there's an important match like this, Barcelona is somewhat soccer-dependant for one day. We decided to take a walk down Las Ramblas (I took some more pictures of human statues for my set at Flickr) and you could feel the prematch mood flowing in the wind. Lots of tourists and locals wearing Barça uniforms and even some very "happy" fans betting on who was able to run in Barça underwear around Plaça Catalunya like this young follower. Here is one of Las Ramblas street artists, in this case a man kicking the ball nonstop with every possible part of his body. I lost my count and get bored so I kept on going. By the way there is a man called the Maradona of las Ramblas doing the same stuff, who had the Guiness record for this activity and has even a fan club.

The Pillars of Catalan Art Nouveau or Modernisme, Palau de la Musica, Barcelona

The Palau de la Música Catalana built by Lluís Domènech i Montaner between 1905 and 1908 and declared a "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO in 1997 is considered one of the pillars of Catalan Art Nouveau or Modernisme.

In times of industrial expansion, growth of the local bourgeoisie and increasing opposition to Castilian rule a movement of artistic revival or Renaixença comes to life.

An intellectual and cultural development expressed in music, poetry, theatre, newspapers, visual arts, politics or architecture known as modernisme appears.

This sort of "anxiety" about being modern, inspired by France and other European cultural powers, became a generational fight to detach from the conservative society still anchored in the imposed manners of the early eighteenth century Bourbon dynasty.

By the way, many of you already know that it is almost impossible to frame this façade properly as the Palau is surrounded by narrow streets like Sant Pere Mes Alt  thus the odd angle.

If you manage to climb on top of the neighboring buildings and take a good picture just let me know how you did it!